Psalms As Poetry: The Language of Wonder, Prayer, and Praise

The message of the Bible is urgent and comprehensive.Why then is it written in the compressed and concise language of poetry?Some find the Bible's poetry irrelevant; others consider poetic language something to be decoded and ultimately discarded so to arrive at summary, theme, or sermon.Psalms as Poetry: The Language of Wonder, Prayer, and Praise takes what is known as the "little Bible," the book of Psalms, and listens to its language.Its poetry is inescapable. But more importantly, it is revelatory. Moving beyond standard taxonomies and tropes, this book explores the imagination, sound, metaphor, lines, form, and theology of poetry.Distinct from other approaches, Psalms as Poetry reads the Bible alongside modern poetry.George Herbert, Malcolm Guite, A. E. Stallings, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, Michael O'Siadhail, R.S. Thomas, Seamus Heaney, and more direct our attention to the world of poetic language.Modern poetry not identical to the Hebrew poetry of the Psalms.Yet, in attending t